Antenna systems are used in a wide variety of applications, such as to search for and track aircraft or other objects in the sky or to identify “friends” or “foes.” Antenna systems often need to include heating circuits in order to prevent ice from forming on outer portions of the antennas (referred to as “anti-icing”) or to remove ice that has already formed on the outer portions of the antennas (referred to as “de-icing”).
Various approaches have been developed for integrating heating circuits into antenna systems. In one conventional approach, slot radiators are used in an antenna system, and multiple heating pads are embedded within the metallic cover that is part of the slot radiators. Unfortunately, such slot radiators inherently do not provide wide scan capability, which can potentially affect the operation of the antenna system. In another conventional approach, a cavity-backed stacked patch radiator is used in an antenna system, and heat can be conducted to a front surface of the radiator. However, the stacked patch radiator does not have a low profile that some antenna systems need for certain applications.